MERTON COLLEGE.
8 4
number of eminent men in the 17th century, among
whom was the great Oxford antiquary, Anthony Wood.
During the plague year, 1665, when the Court mi-
grated to Oxford, not only the Queen but two of
Charles II 's favourite ladies were accommodated with
rooms in the College, and when the Duke of Mon-
mouth landed in Dorsetshire, it contributed no less
than 40 musketeers and pikemen to oppose him. It
does not, however, appear to have shared the Jacobite
reaction of the next century ; on the contrary, it was
known as a stronghold of Whig principles in the
reigns of George I. and George II. But it was not
proof against the intellectual torpor which prevailed
throughout the University in that age, and its annals
during the 18th century were as uneventful as those
of most other Colleges. The scanty proportion of
honours obtained by Merton in the early class-lists,
and the small number of its students, go far to show
that it was little affected by the revival of Academical
studies at the beginning of the present century. But
its Fellowships were already open to merit, with com-
paratively slight restrictions, and among those elected
to them within the last three generations several rose
to high positions in Church or State, including two
successive Bishops of Salisbury, and two successive
Governor-Generals of Canada. When the first Uni-
versity Commission was appointed, Merton was among
the foremost to welcome the necessary reforms, and
rendered good service by drawing up new Statutes,
which became the basis of those proposed for other
Colleges. Having erected new buildings, and re-
stored its ancient Hall, it has sin ce largely increased
its numbers, and is now exceeded, in this respect, by
six or seven only of Oxford Colleges. Notwith-
standing the recent annexation of St. Alban Hall,
however, its accommodation for students is still limited.
Next to the College system itself, of which it was
the first example, perhaps the most important contri-
bution of Merton to University organization was the
institution of Postmasters ( Porlionistae) founded by
John Wylliott, about 1380. These differed from the
junior Scholares of the original foundation in being a
distinct order, and having no right of succession to
what are now called Fellowships ; and this new class
of poor College " scholars," in the modern sense, long
remained a distinctive feature of Merton. Of its
primitive mediaeval customs, the more essentially
Catholic or barbarous had become obsolete in the
days of Anthony Wood, and several described by him
have since fallen into inevitable disuse. " The recita-
tion of a thanksgiving prayer for benefits received
from the Founder at the end of each Chapel service,
the time-honoured practice of striking the Hall table
with a wooden trencher as a signal for grace, and the
ceremonies observed on the induction of a new
Warden, are perhaps the only outward and visible
relics of its ancient customary which the spirit of in-
novation has left alive." But the Chapel and Library,
enclosing on three sides "Mob-Quadrangle," the
veritable cradle of collegiate life ; the unbroken series
of archives in the Treasury, with its high pitched roof
and catalogue of deeds, itself 600 years old ; the sub-
structure and antique doorway of the Hall ; the
College Garden, surrounded on two sides by the city
wall of Henry III — these are monumental evidences
of corporate vitality which give Merton an historical
interest, almost unique among the Colleges of our
English Universities. — G. C. Brodrick, D.C.L.
For a much fuller historical notice by the same author see The Colleges of Oxford, by Andrew Clark, M.A., Methuen, London, 1891.
